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Obama's evolving rhetoric on immigration

Obama’s pledge to use his executive powers by the end of the summer marked both a dramatic reversal in rhetoric and a major strategic shift on immigration. The president is no longer emphasizing his own powerlessness but rather his determination “to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress.”

The administration is examining how far it can go, legally and politically, to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. Despite the flow of young Central American children across the southwestern border, Obama remains committed to taking significant action, according to senior advisers and advocates who have attended recent meetings with White House officials.

In other words, Obama has signaled that he intends to do exactly what he’s long said he’s unable to do.

“I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing,” Obama said last month in his Rose Garden announcement. “And in this situation, the failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it’s bad for our economy, and it’s bad for our future.”

Even immigrant rights advocates, who were on the receiving end of the White House denials for years, were surprised by his abrupt and enthusiastic move toward executive action in June after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) ruled out a legislative overhaul of immigration this year. Activists had gotten so fed up in recent months that some tagged the president as the “deporter-in-chief” and demanded that he shift immediately from a legislative strategy to an administrative one.

“The way they talked about it was, ‘There’s nothing we can do, only Congress can solve it, we don’t have the authority,’” said Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy for United We Dream. “That is very different from what they are saying today. It is completely different.”

The shift could be used by critics as an example of Obama saying one thing and doing something else, another “evolution,” in White House parlance, on a hot-button social issue. Some Republicans see it as fertile ground for advancing their midterm election strategy, which focuses on raising questions about the president’s credibility and competence.

“It brings into question, when he commits to other things, whether he will keep that commitment,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who worked closely with Obama on passing a Senate immigration overhaul bill last year. “Things in this town, to a large degree, are done on people’s commitments.”

But of all the challenges surrounding the decision, taking a hit for a change in position isn’t at the top of the White House’s list of concerns. Aides privately acknowledge that Obama has flip flopped — but for good reason, they insist.

The president wanted to maintain pressure on Congress for as long as he could because legislation is the only way to provide permanent relief to undocumented immigrants, aides said. An executive order can be rescinded by Obama’s successors. He didn’t want to concede that he could take action on his own while legislation was still possible, but once it was no longer an option, there was little downside to changing course, the aides said.

“These executive actions are not a substitute for congressional action, in part, because they aren’t as far-reaching,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest in an interview. “But the president is determined to do the right thing for the country and our economy by acting, within the bounds of the law, to reform our broken immigration system, consistent with the views expressed by the bipartisan coalition of law enforcement, faith and business leaders who back reform.”

Obama still views the legal limits as murky, aides said. It’s a major reason the review is taking so long — the administration wants the order to withstand the inevitable court challenge but needs to build a case for it.